Dr. Michael Uzendoski holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Virginia (2000) and is a specialist in cultural anthropology, symbolic anthropology, ethnopoetics, storytelling/folklore, and ritual.  His work is situated in Ecuador and focuses on Amazonian Kichwa (Quichua) language and culture.  He is interested in multimodal forms of expression and the way storytellers use the landscape, the body, as well as the voice in creating complex meanings.  His forthcoming book [with Edith Calapucha Tapuy] is titled, The Ecology of the Spoken Word: Amazonian Storytelling and Shamanism among the Napo Runa (Illinois).  He is also author of Los Napo Runa de la Amazonia Ecuatoriana (Quito: Abya-Yala 2010), The Napo Runa of Amazonian Ecuador (Illinois 2005), and several journal articles published in English and Spanish.  His work has been supported by both Fulbright and the National Science Foundation.  Dr. Uzendoski has conducted over five years of fieldwork with Amazonian Kichwa speakers and is the director of a FSU International Summer Program in the Napo Region of Ecuador.  For more information about the summer program, please contact Dr. Uzendoski directly.